3.0 PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT

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Bowers, Peter M. (1998) 3.0 Public Involvement. In Historical Development of the Chena River Waterfront, Fairbanks, Alaska: An Archaeological Perspective, edited and compiled by Peter M. Bowers and Brian L. Gannon, CD-ROM. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Fairbanks.

Doing archaeological work in an urban setting such as modern downtown Fairbanks requires interaction with the public. Indeed, public involvement and education were integral components of the Barnette Archaeological Project, and influenced many of the decisions made prior to and during both field seasons and report writing. We believed that educating people about this specific project, about Fairbanks’ history, and about historical archaeology in general, were important goals of our work, perhaps more important than any other.¹ Public contacts and participation in the project took several forms, including public notices, visitors to the site and lab, interpretive signs at the site, media contacts, public meetings, professional meetings, public lectures, school presentations, and public exhibits.

Prior to both seasons of fieldwork, public announcements were published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in the form of notices about necessary traffic changes along First Avenue and Barnette Street. Contacts were made with all affected landowners on both sides of the river. Additional public notices were made through the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. Necessary coordination with city officials also occurred, including the mayor, traffic planner, city surveyor, and utilities.

Site visitations were a common occurrence during the progress of fieldwork. An estimated 2,500 people visited the excavations during 1992 and 1993, either through formal group tours, or more commonly as drop-in visitors. The latter consisted of curious observers who walked or drove by, and interested citizens who visited the site after hearing or reading about the excavations through the local media. Both the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Alaska Public Lands Information Center employees directed tourists to the archaeological site located just two blocks away.

A majority of site visitors consisted of children from public schools. Elementary classes made up the largest percentage of school groups, especially third grade classes of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District studying local history. Barnette Elementary School students showed a particular interest in the project, as the school was named for the city’s founder, E.T. Barnette.² Several high school classes visited the site including math classes with a special interest in how archaeologists incorporate mathematics in survey and excavation methods. Numerous specialized tours (Figure 3.1) included such experiences as savoring the aroma of an 80 to 90 year old bottle of vanilla and peering through an engineer’s transit.

Figure 3.1. Barnette Project archaeologist Amy Steffian explaining Fairbanks history to a group of elementary school students. NLUR Photo (BAR-92-35-03).

Classroom presentations on historical archaeology were given to school groups within Fairbanks, and in communities as far away as Kodiak. In addition, NLUR staff archaeologists participated in "Outdoor Days," a volunteer educational workshop sponsored by Federal and State agencies. Data from the Barnette Project were used as part of those presentations.

Numerous students and faculty from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) visited the site or were given presentations by project representatives on the UAF campus. These included classes in Alaskan archaeology, historical archaeology, northern studies, and Alaska history. In addition, the Barnette Project was the topic of a UAF Anthropology Department colloquium.³ Several professional archaeologists and historians from around Alaska, the lower 48 states, and even from outside the United States also visited the site.

Media contacts were a common feature of the Barnette Project, especially given the location of our work in downtown Fairbanks. Many local newspaper feature stories appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, including four front page stories.⁴ Several of these articles were picked up by Associated Press wire services, and appeared in other newspapers around the state and country.⁵ Although at least one editorial by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner was critical of the project’s cost,⁶ the overall coverage by the paper in 1992 and 1993 was positive.

At least four separate television features, including on-site interviews with archaeologists Bob Weaver, Pete Bowers, Bill Adams, and Amy Steffian were filmed at the site between 1992 and 1993. These were carried by either Fairbanks or Anchorage television stations as part of evening news broadcasts. Radio coverage generally followed the newspaper or TV stories. No interviews were requested by radio stations. Formal public meetings such as Fairbanks Borough Assembly or City Council meetings were not within the scope of work of this project and were not carried out.

Various results of the Barnette Archaeology Project have been presented at numerous professional meetings, to local, state, national, and international audiences. Presentations were given to the Alaska Historical Society in Fairbanks,⁷ and the Alaska Anthropology Association Annual Meetings in Anchorage,⁸ Juneau,⁹ and Fairbanks.¹⁰ Three papers on the project were presented at an annual Society for Historical Archaeology meeting held in Vancouver, B.C.¹¹ Several public lectures were given which described the project to local audiences. These included a 1993 lecture jointly sponsored by the Tanana Yukon Historical Society and Arctic Institute of North America,¹² and an "Alaska Archaeology Week" lecture sponsored by the Alaska Public Information Center in 1996.¹³

As a final venue for public education and presentation of the Barnette Project, we have exhibited, or are in the progress of exhibiting, artifacts at several museums. During the summer and fall of 1993, including the time when the second field season was underway, we developed a small exhibit for the Alaska Public Lands Information Center. This exhibit was accompanied by an educational brochure. An exhibit currently being developed by guest curator and Fairbanks historian Jane Haigh for the University of Alaska Museum is using some of the Gold Rush period artifacts from the Barnette collection. Another loan of the Barnette artifacts has been made to the Anchorage Fine Arts Museum. In addition, a portion of the collection is being considered for a future Gold Rush exhibit by the Fairbanks Community Museum.

Curation of a sample of the 102,076 artifacts from the Barnette excavations will result in a lasting and tangible legacy of this project. The majority of the material will go to the University of Alaska Museum, but where duplication of certain manufactured goods occurs in the collection, the material may be offered to other local museums such as the Pioneer Museum in Alaskaland or the Fairbanks Community Museum. Another plan, should the interest be present, is to assemble a small traveling teaching collection for the school district. It is our hope that this collection will survive for the benefit of future generations as a time capsule of the first 90 years of Fairbanks’ material culture history.

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Endnotes

¹The majority of the public and professional meetings and presentations about the project were done on the presenters’ time and at their own expense, without cost to the project.
²In addition to their regular study of local history, several classes in that school were involved in a correspondence campaign with a person who may be E.T. Barnette’s only known living descendant.
³Adams et al. 1993.
⁴Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, September 11-12, 1992, September 22, 1992, August 24, 1993, September 1, 1993.
⁵For example, Anchorage Daily News, September 12, 1992.
⁶Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, September 29, 1993, September 3, 1993.
⁷Adams et al. 1993.
⁸Bowers et al. 1993.
⁹Bowers et al. 1994.
¹⁰Williams et al. 1996.
¹¹Gannon 1994; Bowers et al. 1994; Adams et al. 1994.
¹²Bowers 1993.
¹³Bowers 1996.

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